Design Tips for PowerPoint Visual, not written Backgrounds & color schemes Best fonts Bullets –– 6 is the max Words on a slide –– 25 or less Summary of do’s and don’ts Content and layout adapted from Professor Keri Stephens

A picture is worth a thousand words PowerPoint is more visual than written

Bright on dark Dark on bright Use high contrast colors GOOD GOOD GOOD Bright on dark Dark on bright BAD BAD BAD

Why high-contrast? Your PC screen is hi-resolution everything looks great don’t trust it! big displays “wash out” colors always TEST slides on final equipment alter template’s defaults as needed

See for yourself: Which line is easier to read?

Pick a clear font: Arial Arial Black Futura Tahoma New York Sans serif good Arial Arial Black Futura Tahoma New York Serif bad Times New Roman Modern Courier

Don’t waste bullets Don’t use more than 6 in a list!

Observe the limit 25 words per slide, max!

You do not want a slide to look like this: Improve the way you create, present, and collaborate on presentations with Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2003. Use enhanced multimedia capabilities to deliver presentations with more impact. Also, protect your company assets by preventing recipients from forwarding, copying, or printing important presentations by using information rights management (IRM) functionality. With the research task pane, bring electronic dictionaries, thesauruses and online research sites into PowerPoint® 2003.

You do want a slide to look like this: Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2003 Create effective presentations Use enhanced multimedia capabilities Protect your company assets

Avoid these: Weird sound effects Too many transitions (some, OK) Flying text Annoying animations Bad clip-art

Please DO: Use readable colors & fonts Use brief phrases Use short lists Create clear graphs & charts Include a “Q & A” (question & answer) slide at the end

Please do NOT Use complete sentences or paragraphs Try to do too much on one slide Read your presentation to the audience Use too many transitions or animations

Thank you for your attention! Any questions? Thank you for your attention!